Our Opinion: Council members in the dark on restoration of funding

Our elected City Council members, who must defend allocations, at least should be made aware of allocations.

Full funding for a city activity, the Salute to America, recently was restored, after the council voted in open session to cut the allocation in half.

What is distressing is not that the funding was restored — staff is authorized to reallocate money — but that the action was taken without the knowledge of a number of council members, including the finance chairman.

The city announced earlier this year that it would suffer a $1.68 million budget shortfall, which raised public questions about who’s minding the store.

To close the budget gap, the council approved a number of cuts, including reducing funding for the Independence Day celebration, to $5,000— half of the full $10,000 allocation.

A News Tribune reporter exploring the effect of budget cuts learned funding for Salute to America had been restored.

The restoration of full funding was accomplished by reallocating $5,000 from the city’s special events fund. The action was taken without the knowledge of a number of council members.

Our concern here is not whether the event merits full funding, our concern is the restored funding not only was veiled from the public, it was veiled from a number of council members.